If you are a cocktail connoisseur at all, you've probably heard someone wax poetic about how important quality ice is for your drinks. Cocktail bars go through a lot of ice, so it makes sense for them to spend the time or money to get clear ice cubes. But at home, it's generally more of a hassle than it's worth.

That's where this new Polar Ice Tray on Kickstarter comes in. With a brand new design, it aims to give you a crystal-clear giant ice sphere, perfect for chilling your favorite drink.

The Polar Ice Tray Kickstarter Pitch

So why does clear ice matter? For one, it prevents any of the impurities that might be in your tap water from melting into your cocktail or spirit. But creating those cubes or spheres at home either requires boiling or chiseling away at larger blocks of ice to carve out the clear portions. Neither of which are feasible for the occasional home mixologist.

How It Works

The key to the Polar Ice Tray is that it insulates the bottom of the ice ball, which means the top of the sphere starts to freeze first; as it freezes from the top down, it pushes air and impurities to the base of the tray, leaving the ice sphere almost completely clear. With normal ice trays, the ice freezes from the outside in, which is what causes the center to look cloudy.

To use the Polar Ice Tray, simply snap all the pieces securely together in the order shown above, and then fill the tray through the hole at the top. You'll end up with ice in the reservoir below the sphere as well, which can be used for shaking cocktails instead of in your glass.

It takes about eight to 12 hours for the ice to freeze fully, so if you're going to want a lot of ice spheres, order a couple trays and start making ice in advance of any dinner party. Plus, you shouldn't be keeping ice in your trays anyway. Instead, as soon as your ice is frozen, pop it out of the tray and store it in an airtight freezer bag.

Finally, we'd be lying if we didn't acknowledge the fact that one of the most appealing things about crystal-clear ice is that it looks better in your drink. Especially if you like to freeze fruit, edible flowers, or herbs in your cubes or spheres. Clear ice makes it easy to see the detail on those beautiful add-ins.